SERIES & GRADE:

POSITION INFORMATION:

PROMOTION POTENTIAL:

DUTY LOCATIONS:

WHO MAY APPLY:

See "Area of Consideration" below

SECURITY CLEARANCE:

Not Applicable

SUPERVISORY STATUS:

No

JOB SUMMARY:

Our mission: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise - "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan," - by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Every job at the VA impacts the Veterans that we serve. You can be part of that team, helping to make sure that our Veterans receive the top-quality care they deserve.

Location: This position is within the VA Acquisition Academy (VAAA) in Frederick, MD.

Area of Consideration: To be eligible under Merit Promotion, you must have an eligibility listed below.

Competitive Merit Promotion:

Transfer or Reinstatement eligibles: current Federal or former employees with career or career-conditional appointments in the competitive service that hold, or have held a career or career-conditional position at a lower grade level as the position being announced. An SF-50 must show appointment in the competitive service.

Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) eligibles.

Non-Competitive Merit Promotion:

ICTAP/CTAP eligibles

Disabled veterans receiving 30% or more disability compensation from the VA

Individuals with severe disabilities (eligible for Schedule A appointments)

Individuals eligible under other non-competitive appointment authorities such as: Military spouses under E.O. 13473; Certain former overseas employees; Present and former Peace Corps, Vista or Action volunteers; Former White House staff; Present and former Foreign Service officers and employees; Certain National Guard technicians.

Current and former Federal employees who meet the established criteria outlined in an Office of Personnel Management Interchange Agreement

Transfer or reinstatement eligibles that hold, or have previously held a career or career-conditional position at the same or higher grade level with the same or higher promotion potential as the position being announced.

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:

Qualifications must be met by the Closing Date: You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements by Thursday, March 20, 2014.

To qualify for this position, you must have one or more years of specialized experience as a Program Manager equivalent to the GS-13 federal grade level that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of this position. Examples of specialized experience include developing a curriculum for training acquisition professionals; implementing standard operating procedures for a school program; and developing performance standards or metrics used to assess program performance.

Part-Time or Unpaid Experience: Credit will be given for appropriate unpaid work on the same basis as for paid experience. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. To receive credit for such experience you must indicate clearly the nature of the duties and responsibilities in each position held and the number of hours per week spent in such employment.

REQUIREMENTS:

Background Investigation: You may need to successfully complete a background investigation before appointed into the position.

Probationary Period: You may be required to serve a one year probationary period.

Time in Grade (TIG): Current employees, Transfer and/or Reinstatement Eligibles must have a minimum of 52 weeks at the next lower grade GS-grade level to be eligible under Merit Promotion. An SF-50 must be provided which shows your current pay plan/series/grade to verify time-in-grade requirements are met. Failure to provide an appropriate SF-50 will result in an ineligible rating.

Relocation Expenses: Relocation expenses are not authorized for this position.

HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED:

Once the application process is complete, a review of resume and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire to determine if you are qualified for this job. Your application will be evaluated based on your ability to demonstrate the following knowledge, skills and abilities/competencies:

Program Management

Program Evaluation

Acquisition Knowledge

Planning

In describing your experience, please be clear and specific. We will not make assumptions regarding your experience. Please note that if, after reviewing your resume and or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating can and will be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities, or you may lose consideration for this position. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

BENEFITS:

VA professionals feel good about their careers and their ability to balance work and home life. VA offers generous paid time off and a variety of predictable and flexible scheduling opportunities. For more information on the VA, go to http://www.vacareers.va.gov/.

Working for the VA offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, paid vacation, sick leave, holidays, life insurance, health benefits, and participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System. In addition to traditional "dollars and cents" benefits, we offer a range of benefits to help balance work and life. For more information please visit us at http://www.vacareers.va.gov/why-choose-va/benefits/index.asp.

VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process.

OTHER INFORMATION:

Creditable Service for Annual Leave Accrual for Non-Federal Work Experience and Experience in the Uniformed Service: At the sole discretion of the Agency, newly appointed Federal employees may be given credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service toward the accrual of annual leave. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) and Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Well qualified applicants possess experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in some, but not all, of the requirements of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Selective Service: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered or exempt from Selective Service (see http://www.sss.gov/).

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position. This announcement may be used to fill similar vacancies that occur within the permitted timeframe of this announcement's validity.

HOW TO APPLY:

We strongly encourage you to apply on line; this process is easier, faster and provides more information as applications are processed. Mailed or emailed applications will not be accepted.

To apply for this position, you must complete the occupational questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below.

The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on Thursday, March 20, 2014 to receive consideration.

To begin, click Apply Online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.

It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.

To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the more information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.

To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS:

All Applicants are required to submit the following documents:

Resume

Completed Occupational Questionnaire

Veterans Preference Documentation: DD-214 or Statement of Service which shows dates of service and character of service, and VA or Armed Forces Disability Letter if claiming 10-point preference.

Other documents  use this checklist to make sure you have included other documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (to verify education), and/or documentation to support Veterans Preference claims, or ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees). You will not be contacted for additional information.

Faxing Applications or Supporting Documents: You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application.

NOTE: If you applied online and your application is complete, do not fax the paper application (1203FX) as this will overwrite your prior online responses and may result in you being found ineligible.

If you completed the occupational questionnaire online and are unable to upload supporting document(s):

If you cannot complete the Application Package online, you may fax all of your materials. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on Thursday, March 20, 2014 to receive consideration. Keep a copy of your fax confirmation in the event verification is needed.

AGENCY CONTACT INFO:

WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT:

Once the online questionnaire is received, you will receive an acknowledgement email that your submission was successful. After a review of your application and supporting documentation, you may be referred to the hiring official. If your name is referred to the hiring official, you may be contacted directly by that office for a possible interview. To view the status of your application, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the more information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application.